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RACE AND M

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• In front of you are three sheets of paper

• On each sheet of paper, write down:

• What is one TAKEAWAY from yesterday?

• What is one new QUESTION?

• And what are you still HOPING to takeaway?

CONNECTIONS

• Now crumple up your pieces of paper into “snowballs”

• Then stand up on opposite sides, and when I say “go” we will start the “snowball fight”

• When the “snowball fight” ends, pick up the nearest pieces of paper

• Share!

CONNECTIONS: SNOWBALL FIGHT!

TODAY’S AGENDA

• Connections

• Identifying the Fit: Marriage and Reproduction & the case of Buck v. Bell

• Measuring the Fit: Education and Standardized Testing

• Lunch

• The Consequences of Plessy: Segregation and Jim Crow

• Guest Speaker – Chad Williams: World War I, African American Soldiers, and Civil Rights

• Dinner Break for Graduate Credit Participants

• Gordon Parks exhibit at Museum of Fine Arts

• Reminder to get grad credit forms submitted ASAP!

SLAVERY

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SLAVERY WITHOUT CHAINS: SEGREGATION AND JIM CROW

Essential Questions:• How have people resisted or

challenged these ideas about race and racism?

Guiding Questions:• How did an ideology of “we and

they” affect people’s lives during the era of Jim Crow?

JOURNAL

• Should the U.S. Constitution be “colorblind”? If it does see “color” can people still be treated equally by the government?

• Turn and talk

Who am I? How does identity influence how I see others? And vice versa?

Who is in our universe of obligation? How has the notion of a ‘we and they’ exist in America?

How have ideas of race defined America’ history?

How do we choose to remember difficult and complex histories?

How have people resisted or challenged these ideas about race and racism?

TWO AMERICAS

“By the early 1900s, America was two nations — one white, one black, separate and unequal.” Segregation was “a wall, a system, a way of separating people from people.” That wall did not go up in a single day; it was built “brick by brick, bill by bill, fear by fear.”

Lerone Bennett

SEGREGATION TIMELINE

1865Civil War EndsReconstruction Begins

186513th Amendment Slavery banned

186814th AmendmentBorn/naturalized in U.S. = citizens equal protection under law granted

187015th AmendmentRight to vote guaranteed regardless of race

1896Plessy v. FergusonSeparate but Equal

Black Codes aka Jim Crow Laws created to segregate facilities

Jim Crow laws are legally codified in the U.S.

1859Charles Darwin’sOrigin of Species + inspires“social Darwinism”

1839Samuel Morton’sCrania AmericanaReinforces polygenesis, all races created separately w/unique traits

1828“Jim Crow” character created

1869Francis Galton proposes eugenics measures

A F R I C A N S L A V E R Y

Jim Crow was originally a dance

To “jump Jim Crow” meant to pass back and forth across a line

The metaphor of the “boundary”

ORIGINS OF JIM CROW

Source:Dailey, Jane. The Age of Jim Crow. 2008

PLESSY V. FERGUSON (1896)

Homer Plessy• 30 years old• 1/8 black• Member of the

“Citizens’ Committee of African-Americans and Creoles”

• A citizen of the United States and a resident of the state of Louisiana.

PLESSY V. FERGUSON (1896)

Plessy volunteered to violate the “separate but equal” passenger railcar law on the books in Louisiana in order for it to be taken to court.

On June 7, 1892, he purchased a first-class ticket on the East Louisiana Railway. He entered a “Whites Only” passenger car and took a seat. The conductor demanded that he move to a “colored” car.

When Plessy refused to move, he was arrested. He was brought to trial and found guilty of violating a state law requiring segregation on trains.

Plessy appealed the decision of the judge who claimed that as long as the railroad offered “separate but equal” seating, Plessy’s rights were protected. Plessy argued that the law was unconstitutional — that is, it went against the 14th Amendment.

14TH AMENDMENT

All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

• Watch the film clip on Plessy (from The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow):

• http://mrvalenzuela.com/?p=6752

PLESSY V. FERGUSON (1896)

PLESSY V. FERGUSON (1896)

In expressing the majority opinion, Associate Justice Henry B. Brown asserted, “If one race be inferior to the other socially, the Constitution of the United States cannot put them on the same plane.”

“SEPARATE BUT EQUAL”

• The Plessy decision set the precedent that "separate" facilities for blacks and whites were constitutional as long as they were "equal." The "separate but equal" doctrine was quickly extended to cover many areas of public life, such as restaurants, theaters, restrooms, and public schools.

• This phrase doesn’t actually appear in the Court’s decision!

Source: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/jimcrow/stories_events_plessy.html

JUSTICE JOHN MARSHALL HARLAN’S DISSENT

"The white race deems itself to be the dominant race in this country. And so it is, in prestige, in achievements, in education, in wealth, and in power. So, I doubt not, it will continue to be for all time, if it remains true to its great heritage, and holds fast to the principles of constitutional liberty. But in view of the Constitution, in the eye of the law, there is in this country no superior, dominant, ruling class of citizens.

There is no caste here. Our Constitution is color-blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens. In respect of civil rights, all citizens are equal before the law." 

CONNECTIONS / CONTEXT

• In a separate railcar case brought to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, the Court argued that “integrated rail carriages would promote ‘promiscuous sitting,’ which could only lead to ‘illicit intercourse’ and facilitate intermarriage.’”

• Before 1900, the most common to type of legal segregation was in the form of passenger railcars (this is not to say there weren’t other forms of segregation)

Source:Dailey, Jane. The Age of Jim Crow. 2008

GALLERY WALK

1. Gallery Walk, individually

2. Examine images, laws, and statistics (15 min)

3. S.I.T Strategy w/ 4 post-it notes

NAMEWhat Surprised you about this ____ and why?

NAMEWhat was Interesting about this ____ and why?

NAMEWhat Troubled you about this ____ and why?

NAMEWhich poster best represents how ideas about race became part of America’s social and political fabric? Why?

George Poage 

1904 St. Louis World’s Fair/ Olympic Games

First African-American to medal in the Games by winning the bronze in both the 220-yard and 440-yard hurdles.

Entered and exited through “separate but equal” facility entrances

CONNECTIONS/CONTEXT

Source:http://www.uwbadgers.com/genrel/020512aab.html

TAKEAWAYS FROM THE ERA OF JIM CROW

• Jim Crow was SYSTEMIC! It drew its strength from exclusion: from voting booths, juries, neighborhoods, unions, higher education, professions, and so on

• And was backed up by the police power of the state• Jim Crow was a post-emancipation victory for white

supremacy, and a direct response to rising black political equality during Reconstruction

• They also exemplify the ways in which political progress for African-Americans was cast as “sexual danger”

• This conflation of sexual and political rights would be the greatest challenge facing Jim Crow opponents

Source:Dailey, Jane. The Age of Jim Crow. 2008

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

• Dailey, Jane. The Age of Jim Crow. 2008.

• Plessy v. Ferguson resources (and other landmark U.S. Supreme Court cases): www.streetlaw.org

• The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow (PBS): http://www.pbs.org/wnet/jimcrow/index.html

• What might you use from this session to help your students understand “Jim Crow”?

• What are some takeaways for your own teaching?

• What could be some challenges in teaching this?

PUT YOUR TEACHER HAT ON!